Another old golf course is giving way to a 55-plus community in west Delray

Article Courtesy of  The Sun-Sentinel

By David Lyons

Published March 14, 2020

 

The whack of clubs against golf balls is a distant memory. But the dormant Villa Del Ray Golf Course in Delray Beach will soon come alive with construction machinery as crews start shaping a 436-home gated development of single-family houses and villas.

The project by Miami-based 13th Floor Homes is the company’s latest to supplant a private golf course in South Florida, many of which have become prime properties for developers in search of scarce acreage on which to build.

The community, called Delray Trails, will be spread over 120 acres and designed for adults aged 55 and over, said Landon Massel director of acquisitions for the company. The first homes are scheduled to be completed next year.

He said the project, located at 6200 Via Delray, will include a new 10-acre-plus recreation campus with swimming pools, tennis, pickleball and shuffleboard courts. A clubhouse will include a billiards room, cafe, library, fitness center and card rooms.

Prices will start in the mid 300s and “continue through the 500s,” Massel said Thursday. The mix will be 164 single-family homes and 272 villas.

Construction will start not long after 13th Floor opens a sister community on March 28 called Avalon Trails at 14800 Cumberland Drive in Delray Beach. That project — also on a former golf course — will contain 217 single-family villas.

Delray Trails is near the existing Palm Greens condo community, which consists of 1,400 units close to the old golf course.

In a statement, Susan Herman, president of Condo 2 at Palm Greens, indicated that her group consulted with 13th Floor on the development of Delray Trails.

“The former golf course site became a major issue for our community as it became fallow and created a lot of uncertainty,” she said. “We feel much more confident in the future of our community now that we have a clear path forward.”

Massel said residents from Delray Trails and Palm Greens would jointly use the recreation campus.

“We will be constructing the clubhouse and other amenities that will be used by the existing and future residents within the existing community,” he said.

Many Palm Greens residents are from the U.S. East Coast and Canada, Massel said, and he expects the new owners at Delray Trails to hail from the same regions as well as from South Florida. Some will be retirees, with others still in the work force.

“We expect a bunch of buyers to be in that 55 to 70 year old age range,” he said. “These are people that are looking for that active adult lifestyle — a nice clubhouse and programming to basically create that community.”

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